Is the threat specifically Google News? I feel it's very rarely mentioned anywhere, at least compared to Facebook's news feature. If I didn't know better, I would've thought Google News was one of the services Google closed down.
As for clear (ahem) statements who this is actually aimed at -- here's Commissioner Oettinger, who was responsible for the first edition of this proposal:
"If we don't act now, there will be fewer and fewer news articles to link to." "Even iPhone, tablets and Facebook are offering news feeds nowadays. We want to strengthen publishers not least in relation to these new providers" Translated from German https://twitter.com/GOettingerEU/status/772785182550159360